But before we do anything dumb (like rush something into production that's not dialed in when we're already snowed under with other stuff we do right)... I'm going to get Yakman to give us some feedback on these puppies.

I have zero doubt about the quality of what Joe put together... But the design has yet to be proven.

OK... I want to address something since there's been some grumbling noises in the background.

As a degreed engineer ('85 w/ honors, UT Knoxville), I'm pretty sure that the AI is not designed to carry people on a tramp attached to the Aka's. Period.

We at Mariner did not design these tramps to carry that kind of load anyway. They might make a nice safety net for a moment, but they are solely intended for carrying gear. And lightweight gear at that. Not 100's of pounds of stuff.

I thought that was pretty clear from the get go, but apparently not. Hopefully it's clear now.

After watching this thread for several days I decided to make one of a similar design last night. I made mine about 22" wide and I guess I could have made it a few inches larger. I wanted one that can easily be pushed back if I need to paddle or use my paddle as an emergency rudder in case the rudder completely fails ... which has happened to me once.

It takes only a few minutes to attach the bungees but I could if need be set it up or take it down on the water with very little effort. It's not something that you should put a heavy object or person on but in an emergency, you could lay a person on it and it would probably be ok. My new thing is to remove the pedals when sailing so now I have somewhere to stow them.